Losing a key singer/songwriter in any band is a difficult proposition (see: Van Halen, multiple times), but popular Roots act Carolina Chocolate Drops haven’t missed a beat since their amicable split with Dom Flemons (now a solo artist). Singer/multi-instrumentalist Rhiannon Giddens, the sole original member of the group, continues to drive the Drops, who began as a throwback/tribute to, as Derek Halsey writes in his preview for CityBeat this week, “the African American string-band tradition that flourished in the 1700s and 1800s.” Giddens has also been in the spotlight for her vital contributions to Lost River: The New Basement Tapes, a T Bone Burnett-helmed album featuring songs written around newly discovered “lost” Bob Dylan lyrics. The album, due for release on Nov. 11, also includes some heady company: Elvis Costello, Jim James, Marcus Mumford and Taylor Goldsmith.
Carolina Chocolate Drops perform tonight (Friday) at Parrish Auditorium on the Hamilton campus of Miami University. Showtime is 7:30 p.m. and tickets are $25. Click here for details.
Here’s a clip of the Drops performing “Don’t Get Trouble in Your Mind” recorded this summer … on a gondola!
• Art Rap giant Busdriver comes to Newport’s Thompson House Saturday night for a 7 p.m. show. Tickets are $15 and Clipping, Milo, Kenny Segal, Counterfeit Money Machine, Eugenius and Evolve are also on the bill.
From Brian Baker’s CityBeat preview of the show:
After the stellar cultural and musical eccentricity of 2012's Beaus$Eros, Busdriver's latest album, Perfect Hair, may be his most ambitious and satisfying record to date. On the new album's "Bliss Point," Busdriver asks the tongue-in-cheek musical questions, "Where exactly is Hip Hop going? Did Hip Hop have breakfast this morning? Does Hip Hop really have the body type to pull off that outfit?" In reverse order, the answers have to be, "Hell yes," "Hell no, it was this afternoon" and "Wherever the Busdriver is taking it."
• Dynamic Jam band The Werks, who work a crafty Electronic vibe into their improvisational mix, play Covington’s Madison Theater Saturday night at 9 p.m. Zoogma and Peridoni also perform. Tickets are $15 in advance; $18 at the door.
From Charlie Harmon’s preview for this week’s CityBeat:
Blending genres ranging from fat Funk and Blues to psychedelic Rock and Electronica, their guitar shreds, their keys and organs wail and their bass and drums form a pocket to create what they call “Psychedelic Dance Rock.”
• Cincinnati singer/songwriter/multi-instrumentalist Ingrid Woode and her group The Woode Tribe Orchestra celebrate the release of a new CD/DVD package with a concert Saturday at the Fairfield Community Arts Center Theatre. Tickets for the 7:30 p.m. show are $12, which includes a copy of the new release, titled Going LiVe In FiVe. Tickets for the show and more details are available here.
Woode is an accomplished musician, having written for artists like Queen Latifah and Lalah Hathaway. She also performed her original composition “When This Life Is Over” with the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra in 2011. The 11-piece Woode Tribe Orchestra (which includes five backup vocalists) gives the five tracks on Going LiVe In FiVe a full-bodied richness and depth. The music is best categorized as smooth and funky R&B/Soul, but there is an impressive diversity in the arrangements that takes it to another more intriguing level. Click here to read more about the release in this week’s Spill It.
• The Burger Records Caravan of Stars pulls into Southgate House Revival in Newport Saturday with a lineup of Burger acts that includes The Coathangers, together PANGEA, Cherry Glazerr, AJ Tavera & Terror Amor and Mozes & the Firstborn. Burger is a cultishly beloved DIY label known for its many cassette release. More recently the notoriously artist-friendly label has been growing and garnering wider attention; the label put out over 300 releases last year, outlets like The New York Times have been doing large feature stories on the label and a new Burger publishing branch was just announced.
In this week’s CityBeat, contributor Reyan Ali chatted with Meredith Franco from Caravan headliners The Coathangers about their evolution from an off-handed joke (something along the lines of, “We should start a band called The Coathangers!”) to international indie success story.
“We didn’t even know what type of music we were going to play. We’re not like, ‘Oh, we’re going to play Punk. We’re going to play Rock & Roll,’ ” Franco says. “Now it’s still the same thing. We just write whatever and that’s what it is. [When people ask] ‘What kind of band are you in?’ I’m like, ‘I don’t know. I guess it’s Rock & Roll.’ ”
Here’s a music video for the band’s “Follow Me,” featuring the members of fellow Atlanta rockers Mastodon filling in for the ’Hangers.
Saturday’s show kicks off at 8 p.m. Tickets are $12 in advance; $15 at the door.• Saturday afternoon at 1 p.m., Cincinnati singer/songwriter Maurice Mattei and his band The Tempers (currently featuring scene vet Jimmy Davidson on guitar, bassist Neil Sharrow, drummer Mike Grimm and Rick Howell on harmonica) will perform at Everybody’s Records in Pleasant Ridge in honor of Maurice’s 21st release, the full-length Celebrity Issue. The event is free.
CityBeat’s Brian Baker spoke with Mattei about the new release for last week’s CityBeat. Though Mattei generally shies away from “concept albums,” he admits a thread developed in the writing for Celebrity Issue, which features guests like pianist Ricky Nye, pedal steel player Cameron Cochran, multi-instrumentalist/Blessid Union of Souls bassist Dave Ramos, cellist Claire Timmerman, harmonica player Rick Howell and Mattei’s wife Korin on vocals.
“It’s inevitable when you write a group of songs in a finite period that you’re kind of documenting whatever experiences you’re going through at the time,” Mattei says. “A lot of the material talks about loss; loss of someone you knew or a relationship or an era, a time, a place. That’s what I get from it. It’s about how things change and how loss occurs.”
• Progressive Hip Hop/Jazz crew IsWhat?! presents a special multi-media showcase Sunday at The Greenwich in Walnut Hills. Dubbed “A Million Ways to Tell a Story,” the show will spotlight international artists from various disciplines and show how they tell stories within their own mediums. The night includes a screening of the short film Doradus by Italian director Fernando J. Scarpa, who IsWhat?! frontman Napoleon Maddox met while in Hollywood supporting the film Billie’s Blues, which was scored by Maddox. Experimental Japanese percussionist (or, as Maddox calls him, “sonic poet”) Tatsuya Nakatani will also perform, as will IsWhat?! and poet Matt Hart, co-founder/editor of Forklift, Ohio: A Journal of Poetry, Cooking & Light Industrial Safety and also a musician (you may remember him from such local acts Clifford Nevernew and Travel).
“A Million Ways to Tell a Story” begins at 8 p.m. and admission is $7. Find more info on the show at iswhatonline.blogspot.com.
• Play It Forward, the local non-profit organization set up to assist (typically uninsured) musicians in their times of medical and/or financial need, presents a benefit concert this Sunday in the name of esteemed veteran local guitarist Larry Goshorn (Sacred Mushroom, Pure Prairie League, Goshorn Brothers). Goshorn has had a series of health issues over the past couple of years, including open-heart surgery. Sunday’s all-ages “Play It for Larry Goshorn” benefit concert runs 4-11 p.m. at Covington's Madison Theater.
The show is being hosted by Cincy radio superstars Gary Burbank (Play It Forward’s founder) and Eddie Fingers and will feature performances by Pure Prairie League, The Goshorn Brothers, The Menus, The Bluebirds, Balderdash, Rob Fetters, George Powell and Dave Widow. Advance tickets are $20 (through cincyticket.com) or $25 at the door. All proceeds benefit Play It Forward.
• Earlier this year, Cincinnati Pop Rock band Mixtapes announced they’d be going on indefinite hiatus after their current run of show dates, which wraps up on Halloween at the big Punk Rock festival Fest in Gainesville, Fla. Local fans won’t have to travel to Florida to see Mixtapes before their break (which seems like it could possibly be permanent). On Sunday at 7:30 p.m., the band plays its final hometown show for at least quite some time at a unique venue — Lucy Blue Pizza (1126 Main St., Over-the-Rhine). The show also includes Mixtapes’ current tourmates Direct Hit!, Elway and Lipstick Homicide, plus Cincy’s Boys and Kinder Words. Sunday’s show is open to fans of all ages and admission is $8 (advance tickets are available through cincyticket.com).
Know of more good live music options going down this weekend in Greater Cincinnati? Let us know about it in the comments.

Plus, Sunday brings several cool local shows, including a multimedia event presented by IsWhat?, Mixtapes' last local show (for awhile) and a benefit for Larry Goshorn

Ingrid Woode and The
Woode Tribe Orchestra celebrate the release of their new CD/DVD package, Going LiVe In FiVe. Meanwhile, Sunday brings a wealth of great local shows, including a multimedia event presented by IsWhat?, Mixtapes' last local performance (for awhile) and a benefit concert for Larry Goshorn.

If you spend any of this long Memorial
Day weekend in downtown Cincinnati, there’s a really good chance you’ll
hear some of the best music makers in the area doing their thang. Two
festivals will be competing for your ears.

Remembering the 1960s music venue that put Cincinnati on the map

Back in the late 1960s, the Ludlow Garage was at the heart of the day's Woodstock-heavy music world. A 40th anniversary tribute is scheduled Friday night at the Cincy Blues Fest, and a live two-CD/one-DVD set called 'Still Truckin' of live recordings is set for release — a must-have for music lovers of the period.